How To Be Filled With The Holy Spirit Kathryn Kuhlman

The other day, we'd been working long and hard here in the office, and it was time for a meal, and I said, Maggie, I think what I need is a good piece of meat. I haven't had steak for a couple of weeks, and I'm tired. Mabel just kind of picked me up, and so she and I went to a place where... We'd never eaten before. And I heard that they specialized in steaks, and I felt I needed some meat. And so we went into the place, and I tell you the truth, it was the best piece of meat that I'd had for months and months. Especially good. It was just great. And then, before we got ready to go, Maggie got up at the table for something and the chef, the man who had prepared our steaks, went over to Maggie and said very quietly, Are you Ruth? She smiled and said no. I'm Maggie. He said, I saw Miss Kuhlman come in. And I never miss her broadcast. Tell her. Just tell her. I love her old -fashioned cornbread. And if that chef is listening to me right now, I want to say, You keep those good steaks coming. Oh, sir, your steaks are wonderful. And I'll keep the good old -fashioned Missouri cornbread coming. And it's just like that. I'm going to talk to you again about something that, um... It's so vitally important. Oh, sure. We've been speaking about the Holy Spirit, and you know how real the mighty third person of the Trinity is to me. And I've spoken to you regarding the person of the Holy Spirit, the use of the personal pronouns. And we spoke of him regarding his intellect. I've spoken to you regarding the activities of the Holy Spirit. He guides. He confirms. He communes. He intercedes. He teaches. He reveals. He impels. He restrains. He speaks. He defends. Oh, the work of the Holy Spirit is marvelous. And we've spoken to you. in these heart -to -heart talks regarding many of these things, literally the activities of the Holy Spirit. But do you want to know something? Of all the doctrines in the realm of the person and the work of the Holy Spirit, there is none more important as it relates to the believer's Christian life than that of the feeling of the Holy Spirit. And I believe that I receive more letters asking me how can I be filled with the Spirit than any question that is asked me. Ms. Coleman, you speak of this wonderful experience, and it is the greatest experience. that a human being can know is that experience of being born again. Without it, the richest man in the world is poor. And with that wonderful experience of being a Christian, of being born again, the poorest man in the universe is rich. Nothing is more vitally important to any human being. Nothing is as glorious their... There is no experience known to man that is more important than that experience of being born again. Then there comes that experience of being filled with the Spirit. And that experience is for every man and every woman who's been born again. If you're a Christian, if you've had that experience of regeneration, then this second experience is as important. This second experience is a part of your inheritance. It is in the plan of God that you receive this vitally important experience of being filled with the Spirit. But somebody says, Ms. Kuhlman, how can I be filled with the Spirit? The Apostle Paul gives us a command. Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit. It's a command. Read it. It's there in the fifth chapter of Ephesians, the 18th verse. Literally, look at it. It isn't something that's optional. Paul says, but be filled with the Spirit. Now, what does the apostle have in mind when he says, be filled with the Spirit? Now, this word, filled, may be used in two different senses. In the original text, There are two different Greek words, both translated filled. One seems to suggest a filling up. You might take a glass and a pitcher of water and you pour the water from the pitcher into the empty glass so that water fills up the glass. The disciples on the day of Pentecost were filled. up with the Holy Spirit. The Spirit moved in, came into dwell, and His presence was manifested in the believers. That's understandable. But watch something. The second word seems to have the added thought, not only a presence, but a power that manifests itself through the individual who is filled up. Not only as the water was poured into the empty glass, there was more than that. There was a power that manifested itself through... That glass having been filled up with water. There's more than just being filled up with the Spirit. There is more than just an empty vessel. There's more than just you being filled to Spirit. More than just me being filled to Spirit. That's glorious. That's wonderful. But there is a place where we are so filled up, not only with his presence, but a power that manifests itself through the individual, through the one who is filled up with the spirit. The word is used of sails that are filled with the wind. Now, the result of filling sails with wind is that the boat moves. The sails are not truly filled with the wind when the wind simply builds them out, but they are in the same sense filled with the wind when the boat is moved or carried along by the wind that is in the sail. And in this scriptural sense, when the Apostle Paul is talking about the familiar spirit, He's talking not only about the spirit indwelling in a person, but about the added thought that the one who indwells moves the one who is filled into a new course of action and produces a new kind of life, a life of power. Oh, that's glorious. This can be illustrated in the Upper Room Discourse when our Lord takes the disciples aside and emphasizes the truth that he's to be taken away from them, that he's going into death, and that there'll be a resurrection. But remember, death and resurrection meant a separation from them. Our Lord says, Because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath... filled your heart. What does it mean to have a heart filled with sorrow? When sorrow controls a person, it dominates him. It produces a new life, a new outlook. Even the facial expression will change. If we would understand what Paul is trying to teach us in the fifth chapter of Ephesians, in place of the word filling or filled, Use the word controlled. We would not be amiss and would make plain what Paul says. Do not be drunk with wine, which produces riotous living, but be controlled with the Spirit, which produces psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. It produces the giving of thanks. It produces submission. It produces power. It produces a new life. So Paul brings this contrast to us to teach us that as a man may yield himself to the control of alcoholic beverages, one can... also yield himself completely to the power and the person of the Holy Spirit to the extent where the Holy Spirit will control his life and his being. The Spirit produces a new walk. The Spirit produces new speech, a new manner of life. Do you want to know whether one has been filled with the Holy Spirit? There will be power in that life. That life will be dominated, will be controlled by the Holy Spirit. But you say, how can I be filled with the Spirit? I'll give it to you in just a few words. Turn over to Jesus yourself and all you have. You say, is it that simple? It's that simple. I repeat it. Turn over to Jesus. yourself, and all you have. This is the crucial point. And if you bungle this, you block the whole thing. Between two persons, there is no love without an inward self -surrender to each other. If either one... withholds the essential self from the other, love is blocked. It'll not spring up no matter how hard you try to love around and pass that core of an unsurrendered self. You cannot love fully unless there is an unsurrendered self. So between you and Jesus. There can be no love without an inward self -surrender. You cannot be filled with the Holy Spirit until there is an inward surrender of all that you are and all that you have. The real You surrendered to him. Not the surrender of this thing or that thing. Some people miss it entirely by saying, well, I surrendered this thing or I surrendered the other. It's not the surrender of things. It's the surrender of you. The essential you. And he feels that which you surrender unto him. All that he wants is you. And when you turn over to him yourself, You don't seek him. You don't seek something. You don't seek an evidence. You turn yourself. You commit yourself. You surrender yourself. An inward self -surrender to... Jesus. And when you have surrendered to him completely, the Holy Spirit will fill the vessel. Not only filling it to the full, but there will be the outward manifestation of the power of that one who has filled you with himself. Being filled with the Spirit is that simple.